MISUNDERSTOOD (2014) ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Asia Argento
Giulia Salerno, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Gabriel Garko,
Carolina Poccioni, Anna Lou Castoldi, Alice Pea
The protagonist in this movie is a smart, inquisitive nine-year-old girl named Aria, traipsing around Rome between the two broken poles in an affluent but dysfunctional family. He mom's a concert pianist and borderline out-of-control diva plowing her way through a series of sketchy boyfriends. Her dad's a superstitious movie actor whose tenuous stability is severely tested when the girl brings home her best and newest friend, a black cat. It's a rough, ragged piece of work, reflecting the girl's view of her world, or Argento's approach to filmmaking, and possibly both. Charlotte Gainsbourg disappears into her role as the mother. I kept watching her, thinking, okay , when's Charlotte Gainsbourg going to show up, and then realized, oh, that's her. Giulia Salerno, who plays Aria, is remarkable, and the image of her walking the streets alone with a duffel bag and a cat in a carrier could stay in your head long after the rest of the movie slips away.
